This one is a family matter, because WaveMachine Labs makes both. Drumagog helped invent drum replacement, and ReStem 2 carries the Drumagog engine inside it. The question isn't which company to trust, it's which problem you have.
Drumagog is a per-track replacer. It sits on a kick or snare track, detects each hit, and swaps in a sample from a gog file, with layers that follow how hard the drummer played. It assumes the drum is mostly alone on its track.
ReStem 2 answers the question Drumagog can't: what if you don't have the multitracks? It separates a mixed recording into seven stems first, then brings the familiar tools to the separated kit, including Drumagog itself on the kick and snare stems.
| ReStem 2 Pro | Drumagog 5 Platinum | |
|---|---|---|
| Works on a mixed or stereo drum recording | ✓ | Needs isolated tracks |
| Separates the kit into stems | ✓ seven stems | — |
| Replacement engine | ✓ Drumagog, on the kick & snare stems | ✓ any close-mic'd drum, per track |
| Gog file library support | ✓ | ✓ 7 GB library included |
| Hi-hat pedal articulation tracking | ✓ Auto Notes, via MIDI | ✓ Platinum, for replacement |
| MIDI output | ✓ every stem, TrigNet engine, live or exported | ✓ per track |
| Per-stem gate & transient tools | ✓ | — |
| Live separation on the insert | ✓ | — |
| ARA2 timeline processing | ✓ | — |
| VST instrument hosting inside the plugin | Via MIDI Output instead | ✓ Platinum |
| Price | $199 one-time ($99 Core) | $199 Platinum, $99 Pro |
If you record drums properly multitracked and your workflow is replacement, Drumagog remains the specialist. It replaces any close-mic'd drum, Platinum tracks hi-hat pedal articulations, and it can host a drum instrument inside the plugin. We still sell and support it because that job hasn't gone anywhere.
The moment your source is mixed, the per-track world ends. Drumagog can't split a stereo bounce, a loop, or a live recording, and ReStem can. You get the kit on faders, live or rendered offline, with gating, shaping, gog replacement on kick and snare, and MIDI from every stem.
Choose by your source material. Multitracks and a pure replacement workflow point to Drumagog. Mixed or incomplete recordings, or any wish to hear the kit on faders, point to ReStem 2. Your gog files carry straight over either way.
Not as a product line. Drumagog stays the dedicated per-track replacer; ReStem 2 is the separation tool that carries Drumagog's engine inside it.
Yes. The Drum Replacer loads gog files, including the multi-layer dynamics, on the separated kick and snare stems.
Kick and snare are the drums replacement was invented for. Everything else goes the MIDI route: any stem can trigger any instrument through MIDI Output, with tom pitches and hi-hat articulations sorted automatically.
Seven days, the full Pro feature set, gog files and all.